Sparkly Green Earrings: Catching The Light At Every Turn (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
Okay, so here's the deal. It's a big deal for me to give books 4 stars (remember, my fifth star is reserved for people with the last name of Lewis or Tolkien or Christie), so a 4 star review for a book called "Sparkly Green Earrings" is nothing to sneeze at! When my husband and I came home from the mission field in 2008, we were both angry and burned out and basically didn't want to be around people. He went back into the secular workforce, I applied for jobs (with no luck) and stayed at home, trying to figure out ways to kill time. And then I discovered blogs (this was in early 2009). One of the blogs I discovered was the Big Mama Blog - Melanie's blog. And slowly, daily, I looked forward to sipping my coffee and reading her blog and laughing. She doesn't know me, and she probably never will, but I'm thankful for the fact that she made me laugh, and brought humor to her blog, making trips to Target into side-splitting stories.You don't have to have read her blog to find the same humor in this book. I really didn't know what to expect when I picked it up (finally!), but what I didn't realize was that it was the story of motherhood. I am not a mother, have never wanted to be a mother, have been happily married for 14 years without desiring motherhood, and yet I connected with this book and her stories in so many ways. As God is moving in my life, I see parallels to Melanie's story, and I see the humor in my own. Read her chapter on Caroline saying her mouth feels funny and you might reconsider any desire you ever had to be a parent. Read the final chapter about four year old kisses, and you'll wonder why you've waited so long. Well written, well edited (trust me, that's rare!), and well worth the time to BUY and read. UNSURPRISINGLY, I had high expectations for this book, which turned out to be a bunch of blog entries strung together, with no clear overarching purpose or connection. It was a lot of ~funny stories about her kids, and stories that were likely meant to be meaningful, but which were ruined by this format right here(Two following paragraphs - TWO! of parenthetical punchlines).(Which were never funny, and just seemed like a grasp at ~random~. Fun fact: the book reads much more smoothly without them).The book was full of "punchlines," and it was distracting. I like funny, I have a good sense of humor, I write things and can't take that out of it, but the literal punchlines WORE ME OUT.
What do You think about Sparkly Green Earrings: Catching The Light At Every Turn (2013)?
I feel like I know Melanie...our lives are quite parallel. But she's way funnier than me!
—kemarie21
Funny memoir about motherhood, more geared to new moms in the early years but good.
—tanzim101
A quick, funny read with a few serious "gems" in it as well about parenting.
—courtney
very funny! read after bringing my baby home from hospital
—shreyas
Lots of fun, and ends on a very sweet note.
—smoon
